Friday, February 27, 2004

Historic Atlas Resource - Europe
About 14 of these 33 maps are interactive or animated. Simple, but you can learn from them. Also, site has about 60 images of historic sites.

Ahh, and here's the project homepage, along with 15 interactive maps for American history.

Wednesday, February 25, 2004

Met Life Survey of the American Teacher
The 2003 edition of this annual report focuses on school leadership, particularly principals.

Most interesting thing I saw (from the 2001 survey): 1/3 of students say their teachers expect their schoolwork to be excellent. Compare this to 3/5 who say their parents expect their work to be excellent!

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Happy National Engineers Week!
Ever wonder why people don't call the IEEE a 'terrorist organization'? Or deride it perenially as a polictical hack group? Are teachers and engineers that different?

Monday, February 23, 2004

Walk the Plank - interactive history game - www.SchoolHistory.co.uk
A great game for learning all kinds of history! Right now, there's 67 topics, from ancient Egypt to Malcom X.

Thursday, February 19, 2004

WW I - The Western Front, 1914 - 1918BBC
Great overview of the war. (And a great candidate for sound!)

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Creative Commons
Helps authors and artists release their works with open-source like licenses. View the cartoon explanation!

Monday, February 16, 2004

Archaeology and the Bible UIUC
I mentioned last week Michener's The Source. A little more exploring turned up this wonderful set of pictures of archaeological sites of the biblical age:
  • Index
  • Tell Megiddo aerial view
  • Tell Megiddo side view
  • Tell Geezer
  • There's a bunch. Wouldn't these make a great Flash movie?

    Also: Another site about Megiddo, with a great graphic of the area of Galilee.
    And a story of Geezer, which sounds much like Michener's Makor.

    Sunday, February 15, 2004

    Our Education Buy WSJ
    For comparison, that's more than the entire economy of Australia, or more than the GPD's of Iraq, New Zealand, Ireland, Israel, and Venezuela combined!

    Friday, February 13, 2004

    Discovery Expedition of St. Charles
    The Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery will soon set out again from Camp Dubois and St. Charles, MO for points west unknown. We didn't find any interactives here; perhaps one of you developers will join them!

    Wednesday, February 11, 2004

    Yes, Virginia, There is a Voucher Wall Street Journal, 3 Feb. 04

    Maybe when your childhood memories include waking up at midnight to a burning cross on your front lawn, you're not going to let a Teddy Kenedy or Eleanor Holmes Norton intimidate you. Just ask Virginia Walden-Ford.

    As executive director of D.C. Parents for School Choice, the 52-year-old Mrs. Walden-Ford played a pivotal role in the landmark vouchers that just passed Congress. She did that with a public campaign that pushed one uncomfortable fact: How many of the Congressman and Senators fighting hardest agains school choice choose private schools for their own little darlings. But the willingness to spread a little discomfort shouldn't be all that surprising from a woman whose father was the first African-American administrator in the Little Rock school district, and who herself graduated from the same Central High that was home to the Little Rock Nine.

    I was called 'nigger' most every day, and I begged my father--begged him---to let me go back to an all black school, ...

    Ms. Ford's own child was rescued from the D.C. schools by a generous neighbor.

    We don't think that vouchers and charter shools have the power to remake places like D.C. But for a few kids who escape that terrible system, you go girl!!

    Tuesday, February 10, 2004

    Historical Noughts and Crosses (Tic-Tac-Toe) BBC-History
    Woe for my education. I'm not even close to succeeding with this little game.

    Sunday, February 08, 2004

    Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly . COVER STORY . Biblical Archaeology . February 6, 2004 | PBS
    This video particularly grabbed my attention: I'm reading James Michener's The Source. Both describe the archaeological digs at Tells (mounds of city upon city) in Israel.

    Saturday, February 07, 2004

    Calvert School: Welcome
    Stumbled across The Calvert School curriculum as the curriculm used by one of the distance learning academies. It was first made available to parents in 1905 as a way to give families unable to attend a private school access to the school materials. Home schoolers have long used it.

    Thursday, February 05, 2004

    Malcolm X speaks
    And again for Black History month, 11 audio clips of Malcolm's earlier speeches.

    Wednesday, February 04, 2004

    National Civil Rights Museum
    For Black history month, visit the website of the National Civil Rights Museum, in Memphis. Not finding any rich media here; you could make them some!

    Tuesday, February 03, 2004

    History - Wikipedia
    Deprived, we are, here in the sticks sometimes. I had not yet discovered the full Wikopedia!
    This marvelously complete encyclopedia has sprung up in three years; with an amazing amount of content. A wonderful resource for you developers.

    It also serves as a warning of what this project should not be. Dry, passive writing like George Washington represent all that sucks in trying to learn a vibrant, exciting past.

    Sunday, February 01, 2004

    Linux is everywhere
    Oh, yeah! Open source meets the Super Bowl! The IBM ad campaign hits the really big shoooe. In the flash version online, hear the words of Darwin, Victor Hugo, Fredirick Douglas, Henry Gates.